ICC Champions Trophy 2009

[SciD]

Holders Australia begins the defense of its ICC Champions Trophy crown against the West Indies in a repeat of the 2006 final.

That match will take place as a day game at The Wanderers, Johannesburg, on Saturday, September 26 and is part of a blockbuster day of action as, later on, India and Pakistan will go head-to-head in a day-night encounter at Centurion Park.

The format, with two pools of four leading to the semi-finals and final, means that every match counts and each side has to hit the ground running.

The new format is simple and means we have eight teams, 15 matches and one prize ? it should be a great advertisement for the 50-over format of our great sport and I look forward to a prestigious and outstanding event.?

The sides to have won the event are South Africa (in Bangladesh, 1998), New Zealand (Kenya, 2000), India and Sri Lanka (joint winners after the final was washed out in Sri Lanka, 2002), the West Indies (England, 2004) and Australia (India, 2006).

Pools:

Pool A: Australia, India, Pakistan, West Indies.

Pool B: South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, England.

Fixtures:

Sept 22: South Africa v Sri Lanka (D/N) ? Centurion

Sept 23: Pakistan v West Indies (D/N) ? The Wanderers

Sept 24: South Africa v New Zealand ? Centurion

Sept 25: Sri Lanka v England (D/N) ? The Wanderers

Sept 26: West Indies v Australia ? The Wanderers; India v Pakistan ? Centurion

Sept 27: New Zealand v Sri Lanka ? The Wanderers; South Africa v England (D/N) ? Centurion

Sept 28: Australia v India (D/N) ? Centurion

Sept 29: England v New Zealand (D/N) ? The Wanderers

Sept 30: India v West Indies (D/N) ? The Wanderers; Australia v Pakistan ? Centurion

Semi-finals:

Oct 2: A1 v B2 (D/N) ? Centurion

Oct 3: B1 v A2 (D/N) ? The Wanderers.

Final: Oct 5

 

[0601731]

i like this format but it would be even better if it involved only the top 6 teams.the prize money too has been increased to 4 million dollars.

 

[Insomniac]

September 26 will be an important day.

 

[SciD]

Talk about pool of death. Pool A.

 

[Cricketman]

September 26 will be an important day.

6 years ago, on that very ground, Pakistan felt the wrath of Sachin Tendulkar. :hpraise

 

[pcfan123]

I still fancy South Africa for this. They should have won the T20 WC and should at least make it to the semis in this.

Also I dont think those locations are final. CSA is having a tiff with the Wanderers management, and they might lose all their games.

 

[Insomniac]

I still fancy South Africa for this. They should have won the T20 WC and should at least make it to the semis in this.

Also I dont think those locations are final. CSA is having a tiff with the Wanderers management, and they might lose all their games.

The Wanderers can't lose their Champions Trophy games. It is an ICC event, and not a CSA event.

 

[pcfan123]

Yea your right, they have lost 3 fixtures from the England tour but nothing from the Champions Trophy.

 

[gudduthemaster]

pool A looking Great,we can expect some great matchs
(champions trophy in September and Australia series in Oct -Nov,but all are 50 overs match,we need to play tests )

 

[SaiSrini]

I think its the same groupings that were done in 2008 (Ind, Pak, Aus, WI). Group A is the "Group of Death". Since this is the 50 over format, the chance of surprises are far lesser than the T20 format. So I expect India and Australia to get through to the semis. But Pakistan have MD Yusuf and Razzaq and so they will be stronger than in recent times. If West Indies dont send their best players for this tournament, they have almost 0% chances of beating any of the other sides (hope they send their best).

India vs Pakistan at Centurion (rewind 2003 and that masterpiece 98 from the Master Blaster).:hpraise Hope we can see a knock like that again. :upray And I hope Akthar plays so that the Sachin-Akthar battle comes back at the Centurion. I am quite optimistic of India's chances. In the last two world tournaments in South Africa (2003 WC and the 2007 T20 WC), India reached the final on both occasions and won the cup on one occasion (T20). South Africa has been lucky for us.

 

[0601731]

it ll be really interesting to see if dravid is picked and who he replaces.

 

[SciD]

it ll be really interesting to see if dravid is picked and who he replaces.

Dravid to replace Rohit and Raina to replace Jadeja.

In bowling we need changes. Dont need Ojha in squad. He is fine but as long as we have Bhajji he will have 0% chance to play in RSA.

 

[SaiSrini]

RP Singh is an absolute must. This guy has done terrific in South Africa in both the T20 World Cup (2007) and IPL-II. Zaheer is the other sureshot. So it will be a rotation between Ishant, Nehra and Praveen for the third seamer slot (Ishant has advantage due to the right arm, and the fact that he is fast/bouncy and is Dhoni's favorite).

Those two changes (Dravid for Rohit and Raina for Jadeja) looks good. I think Sehwag might not make it for this tournament. So Sachin and Gambhir should open followed by Dravid. If Sehwag makes it, we are in a quandary and might have to drop Dinesh Karthik (which would be sad since he has made a promising comeback and also provides backup for Dhoni).

 

[Howsie]

i like this format but it would be even better if it involved only the top 6 teams.the prize money too has been increased to 4 million dollars.

And the top six teams are?

 

[0601731]

And the top six teams are?

the top 6 according to the icc ranking.

shoaib akhtar is not in the pak preliminary squad,so their wont be a sachin-shoaib rematch like wc2003.